DISPATCHES

PARTISAN SINNERS.

Is it a sin for a Christian to be a registered Democrat in
America? A Kansas Republican argued in the Orlando Sentinel
June 2 that it was a sin to be a Democrat , but Glenn R. Anderson, a
high school teacher in Apopka, Fla., replying in the June 10
Sentinel, cited numerous Biblical passages suggesting that if
anything it is a sin to register Republican. "After all, polls show
most Americans see the GOP as the party of wealth and privilege, and
the Bible is replete with warnings of the 'grievous evil' of 'riches
being hoarded by their owners' (Eccl. 5:13)," Anderson wrote. "Do
wealthy Republicans quake when admonished to 'come now, you rich,
weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you' (James
5:1)? Do they rethink their opposition to minimum-wage laws and
unions when warned to 'behold the pay of laborers who mowed your
fields, which has been withheld by you' (James 5:4)? Do Psalms'
instructions that a righteous ruler 'will have compassion on the poor
and the needy and the lives of the needy he will save ... from
oppression and violence' (Psalm 72:13-14) cause regret in their
choice of president?

"Or perhaps Republicans, long having thrown up roadblocks to
prevent environmental laws, fear judgment when told, 'You shall not
pollute the land ... you shall not defile the land' (Num. 35:33-34).
Why are there no Republican animal-rights groups when Ecclesiastes
declares, 'The fate of the son of man and the fate of beasts is the
same. As one dies, so dies the other' (Eccl. 3:19)?

"Indeed, the GOP is on the biblical wrong side of many issues,
including immigration, taxes, even gun control. Are they not
commanded to 'show love for the alien, for you were aliens in the
land of Egypt' (Deut. 10:19)? Is a tax cut for the wealthiest
Americans at a time of near recession moral when Romans states, 'You
also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God. ... render to all
what is due to them: tax to whom tax is due' (Romans 13:6-7)? What
about the Republican practice of allowing the National Rifle
Association to dictate gun policy when Ecclesiastes teaches, 'Wisdom
is better than weapons' (Eccl. 9:18)?"

Anderson concluded: "Maybe sin is in turning heartfelt political
opinions and philosophies about what is right for America into
judgments about the souls of Americans. Gietzen and other
ultra-conservatives who demonize their Democratic brothers and
sisters should remember that God hates the abomination of those 'who
spread strife among brothers' (Prov. 6:19).

"More important, they should realize that we are a democracy, not
a theocracy, and what unites us is not a shared system of faith but
shared faith in America's system of equality and freedom."

R'S SEEK EARLY TRADE VOTE. Republican leaders hope to get
the House to vote on "fast track" trade-negotiating authority during
July, the National Journal's CongressDaily reported June 19.
Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Philip Crane, R-Ill.,
introduced a measure to jump-start the bill and the R's hope to
secure a majority for the bill before the August recess, sources told
the newsletter. Otherwise the trade fight could be delayed until this
fall, but preliminary soundings have found greater enthusiasm in some
quarters of the R caucus than expected. "We're pretty optimistic that
there are a number of people we wouldn't have gotten before that we
can get," said a Republican leadership aide. "Some of these members
hated Clinton -- they didn't want to give him 'fast track'" in 1997.
That year, the legislation lacked support for passage, and the
leadership yanked it from the floor. Business lobbyists are expected
to mount a grassroots effort in key congressional districts and the
Business Roundtable, one of the groups leading the "fast track" push,
opposes a call for trade agreements to contain labor or environmental
provisions enforceable by sanctions.

The AFL-CIO, affiliated unions, pro-democracy and environmental
groups have launched a campaign to defeat Fast Track on Capitol Hill.
To oppose HR 2149, Phil Crane's Fast Track bill, phone your Congress
member via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask to speak with
the person who handles trade issues, and explain that you oppose Fast
Track and NAFTA expansion without enforceable worker rights and
environmental standards. For more information call Global Trade Watch
at 202-546-4996 or see www.tradewatch.org.

BUSH POPULARITY FADING. No wonder the Bush administration
ordered the IRS to send out $30 million worth of fliers to tell
taxpayers to look forward to the rebates that George W. Bush and
Congress will be sending their way. Despite the rebates, Bush's
approval ratings continued to slide, to 53% in the New York Times/CBS
Poll released June 21, with 34% disapproving. As for the notorious
tax cut, 64% said it would have been better spent on Social Security
and Medicare, while 57% said Bush's policies favor the rich over the
middle class and the poor. In other areas, 46% disapproved of Bush's
handling of the environment (vs. 39% who approved), 55% disapproved
of his handling of energy, 52% lacked confidence in his ability to
handle an international crisis, and 51% trust Senate Democrats more
than him making selections for the Supreme Court. Two-thirds favor
the Democratic proposal guaranteeing people in HMOs and other managed
care plans the right to sue health managers for denying care they
needed. Only 49% said Bush could be trusted to keep his word, down
from 56% when he took office. Now 56% have a favorable view of the
Democratic Party, while 46% are favorable toward the R's.

And back to those IRS letters: While, as Molly Ivins notes on page
22, many low-income people are expecting a rebate but won't get a
check, neither will they get the letter from the IRS assigning credit
(or blame).

SELLING OUT SECURITY. The "principles" President George W.
Bush gave his White House Social Security Commission -- all of whom
are on record as supporting privatization -- are tantamount to a
mandate to privatize the system, says Roger Hickey, co-director of
the Institute for America's Future. A broad coalition of unions,
consumers, seniors and community groups joined to raise public
awareness of the privatization threat. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer
Richard Trumka led workers and seniors June 18 at a New York City
rally in front of the World Trade Center, where Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill met with Wall Street executives, who are planning a $20
million fund to buy TV ads to lay the groundwork for Social Security
privatization. Wall Street stands to gain $240 billion from
privatization in the first 12 years alone.

AFL-CIO: 'NO TO CORPORATE OUTLAWS'. One of President Bush's
first actions was to suspend temporarily "responsible contractor"
rules that took into account a corporation's record of complying with
laws, including civil rights and workers' rights laws, before
awarding government contracts. A broad coalition of groups, including
the AFL-CIO, is mobilizing to tell the government to reinstate those
rules. "Making compliance with the law part of the test for being a
responsible contractor reinforces to companies the importance of
making sure they are operating in conformance with our laws. It also
helps ensure that the government is awarding contracts to the most
responsible, ethical, trustworthy companies," AFL-CIO Executive Vice
President Linda Chavez-Thompson told a meeting of the Federal
Acquisition Regulatory Council (FARC) June 18. The coalition has
signed on to a newspaper ad asking why corporations shouldn't play by
the rules. The FARC is accepting comment on the responsible
contractor rules until July 6. To send a message, visit
www.corporateoutlaws.org.

MEMOS: OIL COMPANIES CURBED OUTPUT. Even as the Bush
administration cites a lack of refineries as a cause of energy
shortages, oil industry documents show that five years ago companies
were looking for ways to cut refinery output to raise profits.
Internal memos involving several major oil companies were released
June 14 by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whose office obtained them from a
whistleblower. He said the materials did not necessarily reflect any
illegal activities but said some of them "sure look very
anticompetitive," the Associated Press reported. Wyden turned the
material over to the Governmental Affairs Committee, which plans
hearings on oil industry practices and energy prices.

Meanwhile, oil companies collected record profits while consumers
were drilled at the gas pumps, underscoring the iron grip the
companies have over virtually every aspect of the oil market, a
Public Citizen analysis showed. In the first three months of this
year, profits for the five largest oil companies operating in the US
rose nearly 40% over the same period last year, data show. The
companies are involved in all facets of the industry, from
exploration, production and refining to distribution and retail
sales.

In the wake of recent oil company mergers, the five companies --
Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, BP Amoco-Arco, Phillips-Tosco and
Marathon -- control more than two-fifths of domestic production,
nearly half of the domestic refining and more than three-fifths of
the domestic retail market. A copy of Public Citizen's report "No
Competition: Oil Industry Mergers Provide Higher Profits, Leave
Consumers With Fewer Choices" is available at www.citizen.org.

"Consumers are getting hosed when they go to the gas pumps this
summer because a handful of corporations control our oil and gas
market," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said. "There is no
petroleum crisis, so opening up wilderness areas to oil drilling, as
the Bush-Cheney energy plan envisions, will do nothing to help
consumers. What we are seeing is the predictable result of a monopoly
market. It allows the oil companies to artificially control
prices."

Solutions include a windfall profits tax, which would dissuade
companies from price gouging; stronger federal anti-trust laws to
ensure consumers have access to competitive markets; routine
investigations of market manipulation; a requirement that oil
companies maintain minimum reserves to protect consumers from price
volatility; and a federal oil reserve to counteract marketplace price
gouging. But a key remedy must also be conservation, particularly
improved fuel economy standards for sport utility vehicles, light
trucks and cars. Increasing average fuel economy to 35 miles per
gallon would save 1.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2010 -- more
than double what could be extracted from the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge if drilling were allowed there. By 2020, a 35-mpg standard
would save 4.5 mb/day -- almost as much as the 5 mb/day the US
imports from OPEC countries.

CAL SHOULD BECOME BIOFUEL PRODUCER. Many Californians are
angered that President George W. Bush refused to provide any
short-term relief from high electricity prices caused by interstate
suppliers, then denied California's request for a waiver from a
federal fuel oxygenate requirement. But David Morris of the
Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance said Bush's
decision may well spur California to develop a home-grown
transportation fuel industry based on its well-known leadership in
biotechnology and bioengineering fields.

California has sufficient corn acreage to supply 50-100 million of
the 500-700 million gallons of ethanol it will need to completely
replace MTBE, the petroleum-based oxygenate whose use has been
limited because it contaminates groundwater. California also has
significant quantities of fruit wastes that can produce 100 million
or more additional gallons. Organic wastes like tree trimmings, yard
waste, rice straw, and other cellulosic resources could allow the
state to produce another 400-600 million gallons a year. "Five years
from now there could be one or two biorefineries in every California
county, producing not only ethanol but higher value biochemicals",
says Morris, who coined the term "carbohydrate economy" in the early
1980s to describe an economy that relies on plants rather than fossil
fuels as its industrial building blocks. Morris is the author of
several books on ethanol and biorefineries, and currently serves on a
congressionally mandated council that advises the US Departments of
Energy and Agriculture on energy and agricultural policies.

Morris noted that in his home state of Minnesota, 10% of all
transportation fuel is produced in-state from agricultural crops.
There are 14 biorefineries in Minnesota, and 10 of them are owned by
farmers themselves. "As a result a significant amount of the money
spent at the pump in Minneapolis stays in the state and benefits
rural and farming communities directly," notes Morris. California
would use different raw materials for making ethanol, but could have
the same large number of production facilities and the same
beneficial impact to an agricultural and rural sector that has been
in recession for several years.

For more information see www.carbohydrateeconomy.org.

PENTAGON DEPUTY: MAKE WAR, NOT PEACE. US military forces
should focus on fighting wars and leave peacekeeping duties to
Norway, Canada and other nations with a "long tradition" of carrying
out humanitarian missions, the Pentagon's No. 2 official told USA
Today. "We want to get the military out of non-military functions,"
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview
published June 19. USå troops have played "an indispensable
role in peacekeeping" in the Balkans, but "let's figure out how we
can play our part within reason," he said.

Ivo Daalder, an analyst at The Brookings Institution, called
Wolfowitz's view "shortsighted." US peacekeepers provide "political
reassurance, not military reassurance," he says. "To argue that the
military is only for war fighting is to lose sight of the military as
a tool in our larger foreign policy. If things go wrong, we have the
ability to set things right."

BUSH DISAPPOINTS SERVICES. The Air Force Times
editorialized June 18: "Troops who voted for George W. Bush last year
because he promised to rescue the military from years of Clinton-era
"neglect" may be feeling underwhelmed these days.

"Almost five months after the Bush camp took over, the military
seems to be getting no more attention than it got under President
Clinton."

The supplemental defense spending request of $5.6 billion fell far
short of what the services said they needed and the 2002 budget is
not expected to help much, either, as Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld moves to spend more on weapons systems such as the "Star
Wars" missile defense systems.

"Having been led to believe the administration would jump-start
the Pentagon with cash and attention, ,service members instead are
waking up to a disappointing truth -- help is a lot further off than
anyone guessed."

NUNS AMONG 26 SENTENCED FOR PROTEST. Franciscan nuns
Dorothy Hennessey, 88, and her younger sister, Gwen, 68, were
sentenced to six months each in federal prison -- the maximum
possible penalty for their peaceful trespass on the military training
facility at Fort Benning formerly known as the School of the Americas
[see "Feds crack down on protesting nuns," 5/15/01
PP]. Since 1990 the school (recently renamed the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has been targeted by
tens of thousands of demonstrators criticizing the school's deadly
role in training Latin American military officers, many of whom have
later been implicated in atrocities against their own citizens as
well as US nationals. The Hennessey sisters were among several
thousand who crossed the line last October and got arrested. Two
other nuns from different orders -- Elizabeth Anne McKenzie, 71, from
the Sisters of St. Joseph and Miriam Spencer, 75, from the Sisters of
St. Joseph of Peace also were slapped with the maximum six months in
prison. Of 26 peaceful trespassers sentenced by the judge, 21 got the
max, while two got off with a few years probation. One man from
Mississippi, Steve Jacobs, received two 6-month sentences.

Dorothy was offered the option of serving her sentence under
"motherhouse arrest" in Dubuque, but she declined because she wanted
to be treated the same as her 25 co-defendants. Like their fellow
convicts, the Hennessey sisters told the National Catholic
Reporter, they weren't looking forward to jail, but they planned
to make the best of it. Said Dorothy: "If there's time left after we
get out we might want to go into prison ministry."

"Just knowing that those two women will be off the street for six
months should really make us all sleep better at night, don't you
think?," asked Stephanie Salter of the San Francisco
Chronicle.

FEDS BACK OFF FROM MEDIA SEIZURE. The US government
withdrew a court order directing the Independent Media Center in
Seattle to hand over computer server logs and other records
pertaining to the IMC's coverage of anti-globalization protests in
Quebec City. "Although the court order has been withdrawn," IMC
counsel Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights said,
"the IMC's concerns over the government's ability to use internet
technology for surveillance of political activists continue to
linger."

At the time of the order's issuance, FBI and Secret Service agents
claimed they needed the server logs to assist in an investigation
related to documents that had been stolen from Canadian police, then
posted anonymously to the IMC website. The agents claimed the posted
documents contained details of George Bush's travel itinerary. Bush
was at the time attending the Summit of the Americas in Quebec
City.

Weeks after police in Quebec identified and arrested three
suspects in the stolen documents case, IMC reported, the US
government neither amended nor withdrew its order against the IMC
until June 13, allowing the order to continue absorbing the volunteer
organization's personnel and legal resources. The IMC did not comply
with the order, which would have involved handing over the individual
internet protocol (IP) addresses of over 1.25 million journalists,
readers and technical volunteers who accessed the IMC website on
April 20 and 21. According to IMC counsel Lee Tien of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, "This kind of fishing expedition is another in a
long line of overbroad and onerous attempts to chill political speech
and activism. Back in 1956, Alabama tried to force the NAACP to give
up its membership lists -- but the Supreme Court stopped them. This
order to IMC, even without the 'gag,' is a threat to free speech,
free association, and privacy."

MAKE SUV'S SAFER. Many of those who were killed and injured in
Ford-Firestone SUV crashes didn't have to lose their lives and limbs,
Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said June 19. But the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), under
constant pressure from auto manufacturers, doesn't require companies
to design vehicles in a way that will help people survive rollover
crashes. As a result, auto companies that for years have opposed the
issuance of key safety standards have seen their customers die
needlessly. "Ford and Firestone are learning the hard way that even
though they may be able to persuade government regulators not to be
tough, safety is what the public wants," said Claybrook, former NHTSA
administrator, in written testimony to two House subcommittees
investigating the tragedy. "Now they're paying the consequences for
not having made safer products." See www.citizen.org.

AG SEC'Y DEFENDS DIVERSITY SKEPTIC. Agriculture Secretary Ann
Veneman defended a nominee for undersecretary for rural development
who attributed economic success to lack of ethnic diversity and who
favors corporate farm interests. Thomas Dorr, an Iowa farmer picked
to oversee rural development at the USDA, observed in 1999 that an
economically prosperous area of his state lacked ethnic and religious
diversity, but Veneman called him a "visionary thinker'' who is
needed "to do some outside-the-box thinking'' about rural
development, the Associated Press reported. At a conference at Iowa
State University in 1999, Dorr said that three successful Iowa
counties were "very nondiverse in their ethnic background and their
religious background and there's something there that obviously has
enabled them to succeed and to succeed very well.'' That same year
the USDA, which long as been plaged with civil rights complaints from
farmers and employees, settled a lawsuit with black farmers who
claimed they had been systematically discriminated against when they
applied for loans and subsidy programs. The Senate Agriculture
Committee had not scheduled a hearing on Dorr's nomination. New
Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, had not taken a position on Dorr.